Embodiments of the present invention related to a device and a method for providing a television sequence, and particularly to automated generation of services and broadcast sequences for analog and digital television and for television via Internet (IPTV=Internet Protocol Television).
Presently, a wide range of interactive television services are available. The kinds of applications may be categorized by different taxonomies: locally-individual interactive applications without return channel (information services), completely individual interactive applications with return channel (home shopping) or mass-interactive applications (voting applications). For example, an alternative categorization would be as follows: applications belonging to television broadcasting (quiz applications in parallel with television quiz shows), applications independent of television broadcasting (TV operator service portals) or television broadcasting transmission applications (mobile message transmission applications, such as chat applications).
What is particularly interesting are mobile message transmission services in connection with interactive broadcast production services, such as the television show “Mess TV” of the Norwegian television, incorporating SMS or MMS messages (SMS=short message service; MMS=multimedia message service) sent or having been sent directly to everyone's television screen via mobile telephones so as to communicate with show hosts. Furthermore, MMS messages are displayed on the screen so as to more strongly involve viewers in the television show. Further interactive television broadcasts based on SMS and MMS communication can be found.
Hence, there is a need for novel enhancement strategies of interactive television services, utilizing mobile message transmission with collaborative and content-based filter methods.
Conventionally, there are some approaches, however, only partially doing justice to this need. WO/2002/032144 discloses a device and a method for encoding, transmitting and receiving image and video content, but without automated and content-based generation of the image and video content taking place. U.S. 2008155624, JP 2007209023, JP 2007142729 and GB 2444284 disclose devices and methods, which indeed serve a similar purpose, but do not apply content-based methods. Rather, the focus is on providing recommendations of contents for editors, who may then determine the sequences of the broadcast contents. The automated generation of the sequences with possible manual correction, if needed, does not take place. Or additional program information is analyzed to offer a user an enhanced electronic program guide (EPG), so that the users may compile the program themselves.